1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a broadcast storage system for recording and storing programs that are broadcast in one or more channels.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the transmission of digital broadcasts is full-fledged due to the widespread usage of CS broadcasting systems and CATV systems, a large number of television channels that can be received are available at user's terminals. The availability of many television channels often makes users unable to view a preferred program on a real-time basis when a plurality of desired programs are simultaneously broadcast or the user is not available in front of the television set at the time of the program. Therefore, more opportunities come up for timer recording of desired broadcasts.
There is also an increased possibility for the simultaneous recording of a plurality of programs in the presence of more and more television channels. For recording a plurality of programs that are broadcast simultaneously, it has been customary for the user to have a plurality of VTRs set for timer recording of the respective programs.
Conventional VTRs are disadvantageous in that they cannot easily be randomly accessed and video cassettes for use therein have a small recording capacity. To avoid such drawbacks, there has become available a broadcast storage apparatus for recording programs in a hard disk having a large recording capacity. The recording capacity of such a hard disk is increased or a disk array device having a plurality of hard disks is used to allow a broadcast storage apparatus with a hard disk to be able to record programs for a longer period of time than a VTR which records programs on a single video cassette. One broadcast storage apparatus of the above type can be operated for setting timer recording and other modes from a personal computer which is connected to the broadcast storage apparatus. Another broadcast storage apparatus can be remotely controlled for timer recording by the user who is watching information displayed on the television display screen.
Digital broadcasts transmitted via communications satellites are accompanied by an EPG (Electronic Program Guide) which represents program information including the titles of programs to be broadcast and the dates and times of those programs. Using a receiver with an EPG receiving function, the user is capable of referring to a program list on the television display and selecting a program to be recorded from the program list. It is also possible to realize a broadcast storage apparatus for extracting programs to be recorded based on an EPG and automatically recording the extracted programs.
EPGs may be distributed to users via telephone lines and ISDN lines rather than broadcasts. EPGs thus distributed may also be used for the users to select programs to be recorded.
According to a process of simultaneously recording a plurality of programs on a plurality of broadcast storage apparatus, the user needs to assign programs to those broadcast storage apparatus for timer recording in view of the present timer recording statuses and available recording tape lengths in the broadcast storage apparatus. Such a process has been tedious and time-consuming.
If programs on a plurality of channels are recorded on a plurality of broadcast storage apparatus, then the user plays back a desired one of the recorded programs on the broadcast storage apparatus which has recorded the desired program. Therefore, the user is required to recognize, in advance, which broadcast storage apparatus or video cassette tape has recorded the desired program.
An increased number of broadcast storage apparatus that are available to the user makes it possible for the user to record an increased number of programs simultaneously. With more broadcast storage apparatus used, however, the amount of information that needs to be grasped by the user is also increased, placing a large burden on the user for managing recorded programs and selecting programs to be played back.
While broadcast storage apparatus using hard disks provide a large recording capacity, the recording capacity is nevertheless limited, and the hard disks cannot be removed from the broadcast storage apparatus. Consequently, even if the user wants to keep recorded programs in archival storage, the user is unable to store such recorded programs in excess of a certain amount of data.